THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY PROJECT and THE LIBRARY BOARD OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA J. S. BATTYE LIBRARY OF WEST AUSTRALIAN HISTORY Oral History Unit Verbatim transcript of an interview with GEORGE E. JEFFERY PARLIAMENT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA : LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MEMBER 1956-62 Access - Open Interviewer: Arthur Tonkin Date of Interview: 17 March, 1988 Reference number: 0H2152 Transcriber: Hansard staff of the Parliament Duration: 1 hr 30 mins in 2 x 60 tapes Copyright: Parliament of Western Australia Library Board of Western Australia ca ..4 JUL 1989 State Library , of WA 3 1111 0 NOTE TO READER Readers of this oral history memoir should bear in mind that it is a verbatim transcript of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Parliament and the Battye Library are not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein; these are for the reader to judge. are used for insertions, not in the original tape. INDEX Andrew, Hughie 26 Insurance 13,14 Appleton, G. 2 Army 3,5 Jamieson, Cohn 13 Australian Labor Party Johnson, W. D. 12,26 see Labor Party Juries Bill 31 Bennett, Marjorie 32 Labor Party 4,5,7-9,13,17,27,37, Beros, S. 14 38,42 Bolton 11 - positions held in 8 Brady, J. 12,26 - Trades and Labor Council 8 Bridge, Ernie 37-8 Latham, Sir Charles 20,22 Brown, Anne 36 Lawrence, Dick 27-8 Lee, F.R. 4 Campbell, J. 2,32 Legislative Assembly Cardell-Oliver, Dame 19 - leaders of 31 Cresco Fertilizers 3-5,34 - members see individual names Chamberlain, J. 8,13 - view of 11,39 Chandler, T. 2,33 Legislative Council Claughton 29 - achievements in 38 Clements 32 - address-in-reply 21-22 Clementson 17 - campaigning for 12,13,14 Country Party 18 - duties as a member 23,28,29 Cowan, Edith 19 - elections to 16,17 Crown Law Deoartment 35-6 - induction into 22 Cumming Smith Mount Lyehl 5 - loss of seat in 33-34,36 Curtin, J. 4 - members of 29,30 see also individual names Dettman 2 - assistance received from Dimmitt 11 19-21 - relationships with 22,28, Education 1-3,32-33,41-42 29,40,42 Electorate 14,16,27 - overview of membership of 39 - - work in 18,23-25 salary and pension 27,28,40 Electoral reform 38 - speeches 31 Employment see Work Experience - standing for re-election to 13,14 Family and family life 1-3, - view of 11,38,39 5-6,10 - voting in 18,19 Fraser, Gilbert 21 Liberal Party 13-14 Liauor Act 35 Gibson, Sir F. 11,13 Loughton, Arthur 1 Grace, R. 2 Graham, Herbie 29,31 McDonald, R.A. 10 Griffith, Sir A. 13 McKail 2 Marriage 5-6 Hadfields Foundry 5 Mountjoy, D. 11 Hartley, B. 13 Mundaring Weir 16,17 Hansard 31,39 Hawke, A. 20,31 Nadebaum, August 32 Hawke, Bob 3 Hegney, Bill 26 Parliamentary Labor Party Hegney, J. 12-13,26 see Labor Party Hooper, G. 13 Parliament of Western Australia Huck, T. 2,32 - entry into 11,19 Hughes, Diver 8 - Parliament House 19 Hutchison, Ruby 19 Pash, Ray 35 Hynes, B. 17 Pereira, J. 8 Plunkett 8 2. [I politics - entry into 8,9 - in family 6 - personal philosophy 7,14, 19,40 - view of 41,42 Potts, B. 2 Public Service Commission 40 Pugh, Harvey 35 Robinson, Herb 29 Scadden, Tom 16 Schooling 1-3 Sherrard, R. 6 Skipworth, 2,32 Small, Bruce 12 Social Services Dept 24 Sport and sporting clubs 10,11,24-26 Staliwood, P. 2 Staples 35 State Government Insurance 13-14 Steffanoni, Major 3 Telfer, G. 5 Timber Workers Union 35,36 Tippett, Archie 33-5 Toms, Mery 26 Tonkin, John 20,31 Trades and Labor Council 8 Transport 14,15 Turnbull 2 Unions and unionism 4,8,35 War Service Land Settlement Commission 30 Watson, Sir Keith 21 West Australian Newspaper 31 Willmott, Frank 30 Wise, Frank 30 World War II 3,5 Work experience 3-5,35-7,39-41 Working conditions 7 INTRODUCTION This is an interview with George Jeffery for the Parliamentary History Project and the Battye Library Oral History Unit. It was conducted by Arthur Tonkin on 17 March, 1988 and there are two tapes. George Jeffery was born in South Australia in 1920, and after completing a Junior Certificate at Perth Boys High School, joined the Police Department as an office boy in 1935. He was then a police cadet until 1938 when he became an apprentice chemical plumber with Cresco Fertilisers. After brief service in the Army during the War, he was manpowered to return to Cresco where he later became a journeyman. Active on the executive of the Plumbers Union, George Jeffery became a member of the State Executive of the ALP in 1945, and President of the Midland District Council from 1952. In 1956, George Jeffery was elected to the Parliament of Western Australia for the Suburban Province of the Legislative Council. He was defeated in 1962. George Jeffery viewed his years in the Parliament with mixed feelings. He felt electoral reform was needed and whilst there had been positive aspects to the experience, it had proved a disruption to his working life and had adversely affected his relationship with some people. / • __ .1 •j. • • low, I..-- I , VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT TAPE ONE SIDE ONE AT This is an interview with George Jeffery on the 17th of March 1988. George, would you like to tell me your full name and your date of birth, please? JEFFERY Yes. George Edward Jeffery, born on the 5th of September 1920 at Tumby Bay in South Australia, about thirty mile north of Port Lincoln. AT Thanks, and your mother's name? JEFFERY Mary Dora Jeffery, nee Fife, and my father was Charles Victor Jeffery. His father was the harbourmaster at Victor Harbour in South Australia, famous seafaring family in South Australia. AT And do you have any brothers or sisters? JEFFERY Yes, one brother who's deceased, Ivan, who died five years ago. AT Was he older or younger? JEFFERY Younger, five years younger. [It] was one of those tragic things; he'd had a major heart surgery and five years afterwards he picked up a virus and the only thing that could have cured him was penicillin, and the only thing he was allergic to was penicillin, therefore he died which was sad, tragic. And one sister, married to a chap called Arthur Loughton - they live in Queensland. He's fairly well known as an artist over there. He's retired now, of course. That's the family. AT Where did you go to school? JEFFERY JEFFERY Well, I started one year in Tumby Bay in South Australia. Then we came back to Western Australia where my mother had lived, as a child and a young woman. We came back here and I then went to Mount Hawthorn Primary School in the days of Louis A.A. Lutz, famous old educator, magnificent man. AT He was the headmaster, was he? JEFFERY Yes. Then I went to Plympton School in Fremantle. My father opened Woolworths Bulk Store in Fremantle about 1930, I think it was 1930. Then back to Mount Hawthorn and from there to Perth Boys, later on Perth Technical College. AT How many years did you go to Perth Boys? JEFFERY Three. AT Three years. Do you remember any teachers there? JEFFERY Oh yes. I had the best and I'm not being smart when I say that. Tommy Chandler headmaster; Ted Huck was the deputy; Bill Skipworth was my class teacher in seventh; Jock Campbell in eight, who ended up in the art dept; and - in ninth Bill Potts. And Ted Huck but he was transferred. Ted Huck mainly; but there were a couple of Potts there at Perth Boys. There was Pud Stallwood. You take the sort of blokes they had; Pud Staliwood; Dettman, [who] ended up Director of Education; Tinny McKail; Roy Grace, the crippled one; the ginger headed Grace; a bloke called Turnbull. A fellow was in the paper the other day, Gerry Appleton, was it? Used to be the State champion sprinter. He was in the paper the other day. He was eighty years of age and he retired as principal of Narrogin. We had the greatest staff of any school in Australia, I'd say, you know, for a Government school. AT So you left there about the age of fifteen? JEFFERY Yes. JEFFERY 3 AT And you mentioned technical school? JEFFERY Well, I didn't go straight to tech, no. I went in the Police Department as an office boy. I was a bloody fool really, but we're looking back in retrospect now. You always - when you're fifteen and the world's an oyster. I went to work in the Police Department and I was there about a year when they brought in the police cadet system which they now. AT So you became a cadet? JEFFERY Yes. AT And how long were you a cadet? JEFFERY Well, till July 1938. I was in the Commissioner's office. AT What age would you have been? JEFFERY When I left I would have been approaching eighteen, because I would have been eighteen in September. And the reason I left [was] because the money wasn't good enough, and with the death of my father two years before economics just didn't allow me to carry on, because there were no grand schemes then for widows with families.